When I was growing up there were only two kinds of Girl Scout Cookies I really liked, the Peanut Butter Sandwich cookies and the Thin Mints. I could still eat a box of the peanut butter ones at a single go, but over time I've grown away from the Thin Mints, in fact, if I'm to be totally honest here I'm not a big fan of many combinations of mint and chocolate.
I know....I'm a weirdo.
I know this cake is a touch out of season but fact is we've been drowning in blueberries lately, so much so that I felt compelled to create this little beauty as a means to help work through our overstock.
You see, Muppet's been on a bit of a blueberry bender as of late, begging for them at every turn. Shocked by the fact that one of our kids was (no-kidding) ASKING for fresh fruit, and not wanting to blow a food-hero opportunity while actually buying something healthy for them, my wife and I each purchased mondo boxes of the lovelies last week. As fate would have it, the day after we presented our young berry fiend with her fruit-booty she had upper braces slapped on her teeth and promptly lost her taste for just about everything....well, except maybe for chocolate. Poor child.
Hey Dad, what's in the container on the counter?
Oh, those are some breakfast cookies I made today.
Say what? Did you just say breakfast cookies?
Yeah, I thought they'd be great for a breakfast on the fly, they're sort of like a portable bowl of oatmeal.
Shut Up!
No really, they're loaded with grains and nuts and dried fruit, just like a bowl of oatmeal.
So you're telling me that tomorrow morning I can eat cookies for breakfast?
Uh...yeah, I guess that's what I'm saying.
SHUT UP!
Hey relax, will you.
How come I never hear you get this excited when I offer you a bowl of oatmeal?
Oh....and stop saying shut up or I'm giving your cookies to Muppet!
Continue reading "Breakfast Cookies That Will Make Your Kids Think You've Gone Crazy!" »
Do you remember the post a few weeks ago about the favorite holiday cookie we baked this year, the incomparable Chewy Ginger Cookies ? Well these little lovelies ran a close second in the race for Christmas cookie dominance, so I thought I'd share them with you today. The good news is that they're not like a bûche de noel, or a gingerbread treat that seem totally out of place once the holidays have passed. These sugar bombs are a welcome treat regardless of season.
Continue reading "Triple Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies" »
A page is turned, a chapter ended.
Ever since I was a student at LCB and learned to make a Bûche Pistache, a delicious chocolate-pistachio log shaped cake, it has been Arthas’ choice of birthday cake. I still clearly remember my initial shock when a few months after he had tasted the one I made and brought home from class, he asked that I make another for his birthday.
This is the first recipe that Muppet and I have baked from the cookbook I bought her for her birthday this year. The book is the first from one of our favorite local pastry chefs, the delightful Joanne Chang. Joanne's book is named after her bakery, "Flour", and is a beautifully produced collection of many of the confections that have made her famous, and her bakeries Boston institutions.
I've had the good fortune to have met Joanne at a couple of Share Our Strength events (she is a huge supporter of the organization) and found her to be very warm and charming. She was kind enough to inscribe the book for Muppet, so cooking from it was an extra special treat for our young baker.
Every year around this time I am sure to find my wife standing before our open refrigerator slowly shaking her head side to side, shoulders slumped forward, already wearied by the enormity of the task ahead. You see, my wife is big on advance planning, and about three weeks before Thanksgiving she starts to concern herself over the ability of our fridge to handle the seasonal onslaught of cooking that accompanies our holiday entertaining.
Continue reading "Curried Cod with Kale-Cannon and Tomato Olive Sauce" »
These rugelach are a terrific cookie to add to your holiday dessert platter, though we like them so much we serve them year-round. Rugelach generally come in one of two forms, either shaped like a crescent roll, or prepared the way we have here, like a strudel. I've always liked them this way because it's easier to get a thicker layer of filling using this shape (hey....who are you calling a pig?), but if you prefer the look, or dough to filling ratio of the crescent shape, then by all means roll them that way.
This dish is one that Grid and I worked on the other day for submission to a Food52 contest for their best "Corn Off the Cob" recipe. At first, I thought of submitting a succotash, which is a favorite summer dish of mine, but I've always wanted to work up a recipe for a creamy sweet corn soup, and this contest provided a perfect excuse to do just that.
I found some delicious, locally grown peaches at the market the other day, and they looked so good in their cute little wooden box that I had to buy them. There were about 12 of them in the crate and were still a bit hard when I bought them so I left them on the counter to continue ripening for a couple of days. When they seemed to have softened enough, my wife and I cut into one for a lunchtime dessert and were thrilled with how great they were, so juicy and very sweet.
Of course, the problem with peaches (and most fresh fruit for that matter) is that once they attain their peak of freshness, they begin a quick downhill sprint to the land of rot. If we only had one or two to snarf down in a hurry I wouldn't have worried much, but with a ten or so peaches left, and most of our clan off at various camps this week, I was afraid we'd lose all the lovelies to our ever present summer battalion of fruit flies, before we had a chance to enjoy them.
Continue reading "Peach and Blueberry Crumble with Tarragon" »
"Oui, Chef" exists as an extension of my efforts to teach my kids a few things about cooking, and how their food choices over time effect not only their own health, but that of our local food communities and our planet at large. By sharing some of our cooking experiences, I hope to inspire other families to start spending more time together in the kitchen, passing on established familial food traditions, and starting some new ones. Read more...
